Creating a Standard Set of Municipal Lookups
Need
Work started based on a spreadsheet created by Paul Reim from the Boston Region MPO. This spreadsheet contained a list of municipalities and other information such as the MPO, RPA, and various MBTA service areas among other measures.
The resulting table was taken from that source spreadsheet as much as possible, starting with creating a 2020 county subdivision GEOID and adding and checking columns from that point. Where possible the GEOID was used as a join. Other times the municipality name was used. When those joins failed (Manchester vs Manchester-by-the-Sea), we manually filled in the information.
Recently added fields are those representing MassDOT districts, the types of communities found in the multi-family zoning law, MAPC Community types, and a reworking of the MBTA Service Area fields. We also updated the RTAs based on what we could find online.
The final table contains information about:
| Field | Example | Description | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| GEOID20 | 2501724960 | TIGER Country Subdivision GEOID | TIGER: MA County Subdivision, 2020 |
| TOWNID | 100 | State-derived id. Generally alphabetical, with exceptions for name changes. | https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massgis-data-2020-us-census-towns |
| TOWN | Framingham | Town name for presentation | https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massgis-data-2020-us-census-towns |
| COUNTY_NUM | 017 | FIPS county number | TIGER: MA County Subdivision, 2020 |
| COUNTY_NAME | Middlesex | County name without "County" | https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massgis-data-2020-us-census-towns |
| MASSDOT_DISTRICT | 3 | MassDOT District | https://www.mass.gov/info-details/find-your-highway-district-office https://massgov.github.io/DOT/DistrictandTowns.html https://massgov.github.io/DOT/DistrictandTowns.xlsx |
| RPA | MAPC | Regional Planning Agency | https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massgis-data-regional-planning-agencies |
| MPO | Boston Region | Metropolitan Planning Organization | https://www.mass.gov/info-details/massgis-data-regional-planning-agencies, with OCPC/MAPC munis entered into a single MPO |
| RTA | MWRTA | Regional Transportation Authroties: Municpalities that are part of no RTA and are in the MBTA service area are noted differently than municipalities that are not member of any transit-providing agency. | https://www.mass.gov/info-details/public-transportation-in-massachusetts |
| MBTA | Core (51) | MBTA Core Municipalities: 14 and 51 community definitions from MGL161A and other named communities, plus additions over time. | https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleXXII/Chapter161A/Section1 https://mbta-massdot.opendata.arcgis.com/datasets/MassDOT::mbta-extended-service-area/about |
| MBTA_MFZONING | Commuter Rail | Community categories from the Multifamily Zoning Law | https://www.mass.gov/info-details/multi-family-zoning-requirement-for-mbta-communities |
| MAPC_COMM_TYPE | Regional Urban Centers | MAPC Community Types (2008) | http://www.mapc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Massachusetts-Community-Types-Summary-July_2008.pdf |
| MAPC_COMM_SUBTYPE | Sub-Regional Urban Centers | MAPC Community Subtype (2008) | http://www.mapc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Massachusetts-Community-Types-Summary-July_2008.pdf |
The Data
The data itself can be reviewed here or downloaded from the repo.
Mapping the Data
With this list, we can pull a municipality (county subdivision) dataset that contains 2020 GEOIDs and use that to join in our information.
You can use the above links to compare the various layers and their accuracy.
The map will load with a state border and nothing else. Click on the layer selector on the left side of the map to start navigating through layers. All of the legends will show up. They will turn off after you turn the layer on then off.
Questions
Other useful fields?
Do other RPA/MPOs have subregions?
Other useful MBTA levels?
Official sources for RTA membership?
RPA vs MPO membership? Only the couple MAPC/OCPC munis?
Tracking changes over time?
Other “Town Names” that show up in “found” datasets? (‘borough’ vs ‘boro’, Manchester vs -in-the-Sea)